UNIONTOWN — Century doesn’t like to lose — at all.
Knights junior Demma Hall said, quite frankly, they’re tired of it. As a result, she said the girls have started to come together, work hard, and produce some wins. They’re 4-3 this month after defeating Francis Scott Key 42-37 on Tuesday.
The Knights downed the Eagles earlier this month, and also pulled out county wins against South Carroll and Winters Mill.
“I think we had really good practices this week and that kind of prepared us for this win and coming in confident since we had beaten them once,” Hall said. “I think we came in with a lot of confidence. Everyone stepped up, our bench was cheering, so I think it was really a team win and we did well working together.”
Century senior Jess Diorio led the way with nine points, but the Knights used a balanced team effort to get points on the board. Eva Brandt, Demma Hall and Caroline Little score eight points apiece, and Erin Mellendick had five for the Knights (7-8, 4-4 CCAL).
“Most of these girls have been here for a couple years now and they know the struggle we’ve been going through at Century,” Knights coach Danielle Fieni said. “With the positive strides they’re making they’re starting to see the payoff of how hard they’ve been working to get here and it’s finally here … Our goal is playoffs, that’s what we’re looking forward to and they’ll be here before you know it.
“All these teams we’re playing now, we’ll see in the playoffs so we’re using this as a learning experience going forward for what we can improve for next time and working off that.”
The Eagles jumped out to a 7-0 lead before Little hit a trio of free throws to get the Knights on the board. The Knights scored five more points to tie the Eagles 7-7 at the end of the first frame.
A free throw from FSK’s Hailey Mursch gave the Eagles a one-point lead, but the Knights used a pair of points from Kailyn Jones and a 3-pointer from Diorio to pick up a 12-8 lead with 5:17 left to play. FSK freshman Ally Mathias trimmed the deficit to 12-10 with 3:04 to go, but Century closed out the half with five straight points to take a seven-point lead into the break.
Mathias hit two 3s and Brooke Boyer sank one to help the Eagles trim the deficit to 23-21 in the span of 1 minute, 50 seconds. The Knights had a 21-10 lead before FSK started to catch up.
Fieni called a timeout shortly after, the teams resumed play, and took a 25-25 tie into the fourth quarter.
Hall and Little hit back-to-back 3s to start the fourth quarter and led 31-25 before Mathias’s layup cut the Knights lead to four, 31-27. Mathias scored 10 of FSK’s 12 points in the final frame, and the Knights closed out their scoring by going 7-for-10 from the free-throw line.
“I think the intensity in the first half with the steals Demma had kind of gave us some momentum,” Fieni said. “Going into the second half, we got into a slump but we came out of it because we started hitting shots, working together and relying on what we’ve been practicing, which is the key that all five work together to do the same things.”
FSK has suffered five straight losses since defeating county foe Manchester Valley on Jan. 8 and Clear Spring on Jan. 13.
“The last probably seven out of eight games, minus that Liberty game on Friday, every game has gone into the final minute and right now we’re so young that we took that step of competing but we just have to figure out ways, even as a coaching staff, finding areas of weakness in the other team to make one or two more execution plays to flip it,” FSK coach TJ Develin said. “For us we’re going through these little stretches where the ball just kind of dies, there’s no rhythm, so me, again, finding ways to get them in a better situation.”
Century (42): Jess Diorio 9, Caroline Little 8, Erin Mellendick 5, Eva Brandt 8, Abby Barnes 2, Demma Hall 8, Kailyn Jones 2.
Francis Scott Key (37): Ally Mathias 20, Rachel Wright 2, Hailey Mursch 9, Hannah Boyer 3, Brooke Boyer 3.
Halftime: Century 17-10.